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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27900466">Winging It</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whirlwind/pseuds/Whirlwind'>Whirlwind</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Legacies (TV 2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff, Handon, Humor, Phoenixes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:40:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,506</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27900466</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whirlwind/pseuds/Whirlwind</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Landon's attempt to unlock a new Phoenix power doesn't go exactly according to plan.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Landon Kirby/Hope Mikaelson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>54</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Winging It</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hope makes herself at home as she sits on the edge of Landon's bed, legs lazily dangling off the side as she waits for him. He’d said something about a new Phoenix ability he'd been reading up on that he was curious to try out, but Landon hadn’t exactly given her any details.</p><p>Picking his hoodie up off the corner of the bed, she sits it in her lap, casually fiddling with one of the strings as she passes the time. It's then that a faint thud against the glass window outside catches her attention, and she turns to look. Curious, she slowly stands up and heads over to the double doors that lead out to the balcony.</p><p>Opening them up, she peers around in search of the culprit. There she finds an adorably fuzzy, little orange bird out on the ledge. He seems a tad bit dazed, but doesn't appear to be seriously hurt, much to her relief.</p><p>Hope bends down and carefully scoops up the tiny creature into the palm of her hands.</p><p>“Hey, little guy. You're okay.” She soothes, fixing its ruffled and out of place feathers.</p><p>
  <em>"Well this is embarrassing."</em>
</p><p>Hope blinks in surprise when she suddenly hears the familiar sound of her boyfriend’s voice and turns around, expecting to see him coming through the door to his room. But strangely enough, she doesn’t see him there. Or anywhere for that matter.</p><p>"Landon?" She asks aloud in confusion, looking around and wondering if perhaps she was just hearing things.</p><p>
  <em>"Hope? You can hear me?"</em>
</p><p>Nope. Definitely not hearing things.</p><p>“Yes. Where are you?”</p><p>She tries scanning her surroundings again, more meticulous this time around, but still nothing. Maybe his new skill was invisibility or something.</p><p>
  <em>“Down here.”</em>
</p><p>Just then, Hope feels the bird in her hands move around a little bit and her eyes fall upon the creature. She stares at it blankly, as a ludicrous thought enters her mind. There was no way, right? Her boyfriend had not somehow been turned into an itty-bitty avian.</p><p>"Landon, <em>please</em> tell me that isn't you."</p><p>There's a small pause before she gets her answer, and she can actually hear the wince in his voice.</p><p>
  <em>"Sorry."</em>
</p><p>Hope exhales a noisy breath as she tries to process this, and moves back into Landon's room, where she places him down onto the bed. Standing before him, she crosses her arms over her chest as she waits for an explanation. "What happened?"</p><p>
  <em>"Remember that new Phoenix ability I told you I was reading about? Well uh, in my excitement, I might have gotten a <span class="u">little</span> ahead of myself, and decided to give it a try unsupervised."</em>
</p><p>Hope arches a brow up at him and tips her head in disapproval. "Yeah, I can see that."</p><p>Landon shrinks in guilt, which is pretty impressive given how tiny he already is.</p><p><em>"So I'm supposed to be able to transform into a huge fire bird. But when I tried to do that, I turned into whatever this is instead." </em>He explains, gesturing to himself with his wings.<em> "Also, I haven't <span class="u">quite</span> figured out how turn back just yet."</em></p><p>Hope sighs, bringing a hand to her forehead as sits down beside Landon on the bed. Glancing over at him, she shakes her head. “What am I gonna do with you?”</p><p>He lightly hops up onto her leg, peering up at her and looking as apologetic as one can possibly be while stuck as a bird.</p><p>
  <em>"Sorry."</em>
</p><p>In spite her attempt to appear mad, Hope fails to conceal the tiny amused smile tugging at her lips. Yes, sometimes Landon could go a little overboard, but she found his endless determination pretty endearing. Not to mention, the situation was a tad funny in the grand scheme of things.</p><p>“You’re lucky I love you. You know that, right?”</p><p>Landon is quick to nod. <em>“Yes. Very.”</em></p><p>Hope laughs and lightly shakes her head.</p><p><em>"On the bright side though,” </em>Landon begins to point out.<em> “it seems I can use telepathy in this form, so that's something."</em></p><p>His girlfriend tipped her chin in agreement, at least there was that. “So what do we do now then?”</p><p><em>“Back to the library."</em> He suggests. <em>"That’s where I left the book which will hopefully help get me out of this mess."</em></p>
<hr/><p>Though Hope earns a couple of curious looks for walking around the school with a bird on her shoulder, the duo eventually makes it to their destination without any major disruptions.</p><p>Placing him down onto the designated table, Hope slides the book in question closer as she takes a seat. Hopping forward to get a better look, Landon fluffs up his feathers to keep warm as he nestles down to look over the pages in search of a solution to his current predicament.</p><p>He looks like a little orange puff ball as he sits there, and Hope can't help but take her index finger and gently poke him in the side, causing him to tip off balance slightly. Landon then has to quickly flap his tiny wings to keep himself upright.</p><p><em>"Hope!" </em>He bops up and down in frustration, turning around to face her<em>. "Please focus!"</em> Landon says telepathically, but his bird form lets out the most adorable peep noise in protest, and Hope can't help but giggle in amusement.</p><p>"Sorry! You just look so fuzzy and cute." She gushes, unable to help herself. But he was right, this was important and she needed to keep her mind on the task at hand right now.</p><p><em>"I'm not supposed to look cute. I'm supposed to look fearsome and powerful, not like a stray cat could devour me at any minute." </em>He exhales a heavy sigh, tone shifting to that of a dispirited one as his shoulders sag.<em><br/>
</em></p><p><em>"How am I supposed to protect anyone when I’m nothing but a joke of a supernatural, who's only skills are dying and flying!? What good am I to you?" </em>Landon whispers, looking away.</p><p>His words surprise her, and Hope’s face softens, expression turning sincere. She hadn't realized he'd felt that way. "Landon...”</p><p>He hops up onto one of the other books sitting on the table, and shakes his head.</p><p>
  <em>“Look, I know you don’t need protecting. You're your own hero, and I love that about you. But... You’ve had a lot of close calls trying to keep the school safe this year, Hope. First the thing with Clarke, then the heart eating Pothos, and then you were almost impaled during your face off with Dark Josie. I want to be someone you can trust to have your back in a fight, not the person you always have to risk yourself to save. I wanna be useful to you.”</em>
</p><p>Was that the reason he’d been doing all this? To help lighten the burden she'd taken on? To make sure that she too was still standing at the end of all this? Hope knew he worried about her, but she hadn’t realized just how much those near misses had affected him. Scared him. She was always the one so afraid of losing him, that sometimes she forgets he has that same fear with her too. In spite how she often acted, she was not truly immortal. No one was.</p><p>"Landon, I-" Hope suddenly stops short when she notices that for some strange reason, she can see her own breath. Landon quickly becomes aware of that too as he feels a icy shiver sweep over him.</p><p>
  <em>"Is it getting colder in here?"</em>
</p><p>They both turn to look across the other end of the library, where they see a towering frost giant entering the space. Hope is quick to her feet, gathering Landon up in her palms, she scopes out a safe place to put him. Taking note of a nearby bookshelf, Hope pushes up onto her toes and places him atop one of the upper ledges, to help keep him out of harm.</p><p>Turning back around to deal with the newest monster to infiltrate the school, Hope's caught off guard to see the glacial figure standing directly behind her. Startled, she steps back, but is pinned up against the bookshelf with nowhere to go. The giant reaches down and grabs Hope tightly by the wrist, and her skin starts to immediately turn a pale blue color, as it travels further up her arm. She hisses at the searing icy pain that courses through her veins, causing her body to stiffen rapidly. As her previously rose colored lips begin to pale, she struggles to move them, making it almost impossible to recite any magic to help get her out of this.</p><p>Desperate to help her, Landon throws himself off the shelf above, his tiny wings just barely managing to keep him airborne as he goes after the giant. He begins rapidly pecking him in the face, aiming for the area around the eyes for maximum discomfort.</p><p>The constant bombardment of a sharp little beak again his skin irritates the monster, and he draws back to get away from it, releasing his grip on Hope in the process. The young woman inhales a sharp gasp as a feeling of warmth begins to return to her body, thawing out her frigid extremities, and her normal color slowly begins to return.</p><p>Annoyed by the bothersome bird, the frost giant roughly swats him away, sending Landon crashing hard into a nearby wall, and falling to the floor with a painful thump. "Pest." He mutters, voice low and gravelly like rolling thunder.</p><p>“Landon!” Hope cries out as she rushes past the creature to go check on him. Slipping her hands under his battered form, she delicately cradles his limp body to her, nudging him lightly in the hope's that he'll rouse. "Wake up. Wake up." She pleads, voice shaking as she waits for any signs of life.</p><p>After what feels like an eternity, Hope finally sees subtle movement, feathers rustling against her skin. Weakly lifting his head up, he blinks repeatedly as he tries to clear his vision. As his eyes begin to refocus, he looks over her shoulder and sees the frost giant produce an icicle that hovers just above his palm, and he realizes that it's aimed directly at Hope's heart.</p><p>Landon moves on instinct, temporarily forgetting his current appearance, and he launches himself in front of her in some harebrained attempt to act as a shield of sorts. But it's in that instance he feels a shift in his body, it's as if someone has unlocked something deep within him, and a fiery energy surges through him. He can feel the shift in his formerly petite body as it transforms, wings now spanning numerous feet instead of inches, flames lapping fiercely at the air. Razor sharp talons scrape against the mahogany floors as he stretches the full length of his new body.</p><p><em>"Now <strong>this</strong> is more like it."</em> Landon remarks, much more pleased with this form than the previous one.</p><p>He can hear the stunned gasp from Hope behind him, eyes as wide as saucers as she takes in the change before her. As much as he would kinda like to relish in this moment, there's a monster that needs to be dealt with.</p><p><em>"How about this time you pick on someone your own size, you walking popsicle stick."</em> He challenges the frost giant, hoping he can put his money where his mouth is when it comes to figuring out how to fight as a phoenix.</p><p>The creature lets out a short laugh and cocks his head, intrigued by the match. Long icy fingers gesture for Landon to try him, and a clash between the two opposing elementals begins to ensue within the confined space.</p><p>After a little bit of a rough start, Landon manages to get a pretty decent handle on his capabilities during the fight, and with an assist from Hope, the two are able to dispose of the frosty fiend, once again keeping the school safe for another day.</p><p>With the monster now nothing more a huge puddle on the library floor, the adrenaline begins to dissipate from Landon's body, causing massive flames to burst forth and engulf him. The fire then begins to slowly shrink down, reconstructing him back once more into his human form.</p><p>After taking a moment to flex his fingers and toes to make sure everything is still working properly, he quickly makes his way over to check on Hope.</p><p>"Are you okay?" He asks, carefully examining her wrist from where the giant had grabbed hold of her earlier, making sure she's healed up properly.</p><p>"That- that was..." Hope stammers out, ignoring his initial question as she tries to wrap her mind around what had just unfolded.</p><p>"New? Weird?" Landon laughs, scratching at the back of his head sheepishly, as he realizes how wild that all was. He actually just transformed into a living breathing Phoenix, who knew?</p><p>"Amazing." Hope is finally able to reply, a sense of pride etched in her features as she smiles up at him.</p><p>"Really?" He blushes lightly, chewing at his bottom lip as his eye shyly meet hers. "You're not freaked out that your boyfriend can turn into a talking bird?"</p><p>The auburn haired young woman shrugs. "Believe it or not, that seems like one of the more normal things that's happened to us lately." Hope laughs as she takes a step closer, wrapping her arms snugly around his neck. "And besides, you looked very majestic like that. Though, I much prefer this version of you." She admits, twirling a stray curl of his with her index finger.</p><p>A startled Landon's cheeks flush bright red, both flattered and embarrassed to hear such a thing from her mouth, as his tongue trips over itself.</p><p>Grinning at his reaction, Hope chuckles as she leans her forehead against his. Closing her eyes, she sighs softly. "I'm sorry by the way. For not realizing how you felt. You're not useless Landon, the truth is... I'm scared to let you help because I've lost so many people in my life, all because they were trying to keep me safe.” She swallows roughly at the memories, taking a moment to recompose herself before continuing. “That's why I always try to take everything on by myself, so I don't lose anyone else. But sometimes I forget that it's a two way street, and that you worry about me too."</p><p>Landon moves to cup her cheek with his palm, thumb lightly caressing her face. "I already lost you once, Hope. I don't want to lose you again." He murmurs, the anguish clearly evident in his voice. "We're in this together." He reminds her reassuringly, letting his nose rub affectionately against hers.</p><p>"Always?" Hope asks softly, a small tremble unintentionally catching in her throat, as her shimmering blue eyes lift upwards to meet his steady green ones.</p><p>"And forever." Landon whispers back with certainty, and Hope lightly pushes up onto her toes to press a tender kiss against his full lips, savoring the intimate moment between them.</p>
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